


Say My Name

by red_flag



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: And they are the love of my life okay?, Charlie is soft, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, One Shot, That's it, Zari is soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 23:53:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17171861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/red_flag/pseuds/red_flag
Summary: Zari let Charlie’s low rumble wash over her like warm water, her mind catching a few words here and there, her whole attention on the simple ways the shapeshifter’s lips kept moving and how her eyes turned thoughtful and unfocused before sharpening up along with her tone and then shifting towards her own way. Eyebrows frowned, a spark of confusion lightening up in the dark orbs before it turned to an amusement.





	Say My Name

The thing about time travel was that, at one point, someone would eventually lose the sense of present, past and future. But, at extreme points, also lose the sense of reality and timelines, of what had really happened and existed and what hadn’t. It was a rollercoaster, which could easily consume your whole mind if you paid much attention, throwing you in a loop of trying to make sense of the question; what was really the present for a time traveler?

 _Which_ was the present if you could so easily walk in the same city you were born one hundred years ahead of your time, if you could just as easily live in the ancient Rome as a simple civilian of that chronology?

What was the present if you could make _whichever time_ **_your own_** present?

Sometimes it seemed like the future was only one, every action leading up to a very specific moment and it couldn’t change. It seemed like everything was controlled by something bigger, something that had everything working in a strict order. Walking in Star City thirty years ahead and seeing your people older and living specific lives, could raise many, many questions of how the future worked, of how your actions in the present ( _which or who’s present?_ ) would impact your future – _the_ future.

But future was so fragile and could be shifted with a simple movement of a hand, so much unlike the past, that was one and only and printed down in history. You could live in a random past time but you had to work with its rules, its movement, thinking more than twice before interacting with anyone. You couldn’t change history. It was something that altered lives and realities into something non-existence, something that was caused by an action of a second, something that broke the flow of time.

Someone living in someone else’s future _–their own present–_ which rules had exactly to follow? When your changeable future was their past and, maybe, their present? Changing something in your future couldn’t impact your present and therefore your own timeline ( _simply because that something hadn’t happened just yet and it could very easily not **even** happen because future could be shifted_) but how would that tiny change of your future (and someone else’s past) impact _that_ someone’s present?

So really, past and present and future were becoming a messed up thing in the mind of a time traveler who did everything in their power to keep history intact, who had to live for a bit in 1932 and then in 1987 and then in 2000 and then in 2040, who had to stop anachronism shifting from one timeline to another, who had to stop magical creatures from causing huge anomalies to history…

Zari groaned, shutting off the music that spilled from her headphones straight to her brain and leaned back on the couch, blinking down at her book and turning back the few pages that flew by without her paying any attention to it. Her eyes stranded to the framed picture on the coffee table, her brother’s smile warming up her chest.

She let out another groan, abandoning her thick book on the table and hanging the headphones around her neck. The hallways were quiet, the only sound being the Waverider’s machines working smoothly, the rest of the team nowhere to be found at this hour. The kitchen was just as silent and empty.

Gideon already had a chocolate donut waiting for her in the counter and Zari sent off a quiet thank-you to the AI, taking a seat to the table and biting at the delicious, soft snack, her mouth filling with the perfect sweet flavor. She let out a low moan at the taste, her muscles relaxing on the chair lazily.

A soft chuckled filled the room, making the woman open her eyes, finding a smiling Charlie looking at her with an amused face. It had been a little while since Zari found herself referring to the shapeshifter with her own name rather than Amaya’s upon sight. It was a very good change to not feel that hints of disappointment when she realized that this was a completely different person and not her best friend. A person that was growing on being a very soft spot on her, a distraction in her daily routines.

Charlie raised up her hands, the smug smile still on her face. “Well, don’t stop on my account, love. You and that donut seemed to have a very good time, don’t let me interrupt you”.

Zari rolled her eyes, half irritated and half amused. “Why are you up?”

“Ah, watched a movie”, the shapeshifter sighed and walked closer, her movements so at ease and with self-awareness and so much like _Charlie_ that Zari blinked as her mind straggled to remember Amaya’s walking style. She had to close her eyes for a moment, needing to stop the growing affection for this being. “Are you alright, Z?”

She cleared her throat. “Yeah, just tired. I have a lot on my mind lately”.

Charlie shifted lightly on her feet, wrapping an arm around her waist, the corner of her lips pulling a bit back. She was hesitating, Zari thought, leaning farther back on her chair, giving time to the shapeshifter to ask her question. “You wanna talk about it?”

Zari offered a gentle smile up at her. “No, not really”. She watched Charlie nod, a shadow falling over her face. “But I don’t mind some company”, she added just as gently, seeing the spark appearing back in the dark eyes. It didn’t warm her up, of course it didn’t.

Charlie walked closer, taking a seat on the chair next to her, letting out a sigh and trying to relax, failing miserably to hide the nervous twists of her body. It had been a long time since they last fought for something, falling in a rhythm of working in sync, without much to say, opting to follow each other’s lead more often than not. Once they stopped throwing insults and threats, they found out they actually made a good team, sharing facts, covering the blank spaces of the other’s knowledge about time travel and magical creatures.

It was just so _easy_ to read Charlie that it almost scared her to death.

“What did you watch?” Zari kept her voice low, immediately seeing Charlie relaxing.

“Some Christmas crappy movie”, Charlie shrugged. “Way too cheesy for my tastes. I slept through the half of it”.

Zari smiled. “Don’t you like Christmas?”

“I never… celebrate it. I’d never even heard about it before I got out of the Prison. It seems a bit pointless but it makes you humans happy so I guess it’s important to get to know some stuff about it”. Charlie stopped playing with the corner of a napkin to look up at her. “You don’t like it?”

Zari nodded her head slowly and smiled. “I’m Muslim. I don’t celebrate it”.

Charlie sighed, running a hand over her forehead. “Humans are so weird…”

Zari’s smiled widened just a bit more. “You just have to use to it”.

Charlie scoffed, leaning back on her chair. Her voice was rough. “What’s the point of celebrating something that happened so many years ago anyways? I mean, I get the whole religion thing you humans have on going but I mean, some of you get in a lot of trouble for such celebrations, not to mention that religion…”

Zari let Charlie’s low rumble wash over her like warm water, her mind catching a few words here and there, her whole attention on the simple ways the shapeshifter’s lips kept moving and how her eyes turned thoughtful and unfocused before sharpening up along with her tone and then shifting towards her own way. Eyebrows frowned, a spark of confusion lightening up in the dark orbs before it turned to an amusement.

Her name being chuckled from the shapeshifter’s mouth had Zari jolting lightly in her seat, blinking her burning eyes. “I’m sorry, what?”

Charlie laughed. “Welcome back, sweetie, how was the weather over where just you went?” _Her smile could brighten up a Christmas tree_ , Zari thought before she shook herself to get her brain back on its place.

“Shut up”, Zari rolled her eyes.

Something softened in Charlie’s gaze for a second but then it was quickly gone as the shapeshifter reached over and took her empty plate. “You should go to sleep, Z. You all had a few rough couple of hours today”.

The mission had gone extremely badly before it got better, Ray ending up in the med bay with a terrifying bloody head after a very harsh blow by their vampire’s fist. Sara had gotten three broken fingers, a very impressive bruise around her neck and some cracked ribs, all of the injuries fortunately being fixed up by Gideon in a few minutes, their Captain left sleepy because of the amount of sedatives and in the care of Ava. It took Zari pinning the vampire in an opened grave with strong forces of air, Mick’s fire gun almost burning down the town’s cemetery and Constantine’s spells to throw the vampire in something like a coma. They had all collapsed as soon as the creature fell unconscious, Charlie quick to bring them in the Waverider and med bay.

“About that”, Zari cleared her throat, her hands fidgeting. “We were all out of it and never thanked you properly for taking care of us after”.

Charlie had been drowned in a sea of books and notes and anxiety because vampires could be the friendliest beings when they had eaten but also could be the deathliest when hungry. The one they had had to deal with hadn’t eaten in a very long time, its levels of danger hitting code red as it almost wiped out New York’s half population in 1986. Charlie had gathered up every information she could think and find, her focus on the cameras, being their eyes and ears as the creature was too fast to be seen by a human who knew nothing of its tactics.

The shapeshifter shrugged as she walked away and placed the used plate in the sink. “I could have been more helpful if I had my powers and was out there with you”.

The words clicked in Zari’s head. She frowned, feeling something flutter in her chest. “You… If you had your powers, you would still be here? I mean… When you get your powers back, you’re planning on staying?”

Charlie let out a dry chuckle. “Whoa, Z, didn’t know I was _that_ much of a weight”.

Zari shook her head, standing from the chair, approaching as her gut clenched. “No, that is not how I said that. I thought that you were only staying to keep an eye on John and an opportunity to find a way to recover your shapeshifting”.

Charlie’s eyebrows were still frowned. “Well, _I am_ staying for that but this place has grown into me, you know, I may stick a bit around”, she added slowly, her guarded eyes raising to look at Zari.

Zari nodded, trying to ignore the growing warmth in her chest. “Well, good, we need your knowledge for the mythical fugitives if we ever want to clear up this mess”.

Charlie smiled but didn’t say anything, a heavy silence settling between the two of them. It wasn’t totally uncomfortable but it was heavy and tensed and needed to be filled with words. Charlie caved in first, raising her eyes away from her shoes, giving a soft smile at the woman in front of her.

“You really need to go to bed, Z”, she said, her smile growing and turning into a grin. “I can cover you with the blanket if you want”.

Zari rolled her eyes gently, pushing away from the counter she was leaning on. They walked in a less tensed silence, their steps echoing in the metallic hallways, up until they arrived outside Zari’s room, the door automatically opening behind the woman.

Charlie buried her hands in her pockets. “Well, good night, Z”, she smiled and started to walk away towards her own room, stopped by a soft hand on her upper arm. Zari looks like she was already regretting what she was about to say.

“Look, I’m sorry, I’ve been harsh with you”, she sighed, trying to stop the loud boiling feelings of burning anxiety and the pure fucking care for this being that had gotten in her mind and under her skin in all the right and wrong ways.

Charlie laughed. “You have been harsher”.

“That doesn’t make it okay”, Zari shook her head. “It’s just…”

“Oh, I know”, Charlie cut her off, a sad look enveloping her eyes. “Amaya”.

Zari blinked, confused. “What?”

“You see me, you see Amaya and when you realize it’s not her… I get it, I don’t really expect you to be kind to me when I’m wearing the face of the woman you were cru– friends with. I mean I’ve told you why I kept coming back in this body when we broke time but I realized that was selfish, you –and everyone else on the team really– don’t need to…”

Charlie’s words were cut off by a pair of soft lips pressing against her mouth, a cold hand cupping her jaw to keep her still, a warm exhale landing on her cheek. Zari was close enough to feel the inhuman warmth that came off Charlie’s body, the way her muscles relaxed and shifted just an inch closer. Two very gentle hands pressed on Zari’s hips, fingers spreading out against the material of her jeans, refusing to touch the human’s skin.

Charlie kissed her back and Zari sighed, her hand travelling down the shapeshifter’s neck to grasp the cloth of her shirt and pull her closer, her other hand tangling up in the wild locks of hair. A soft sound escaped Charlie’s chest, one of her arms coming up to wrap around the woman’s waist and press their bodies together. Zari hummed at the contact, stretching like a cat against the shapeshifter’s front, breaking the kiss.

They took in deep breaths, neither of them moving to put some distance between them, their position looking a lot like a tight hug rather than a result of kissing. It was intimate though, a lot intimate, Charlie’s palm on Zari’s hipbone, the hacker’s hands grasping Charlie’s shirt and caressing her hair.

Charlie tried to shush the questions and worry by leaning back in to press one more kiss on Zari’s lips, feeling the woman respond immediately, kissing her right back. It was just as soft as the first kiss, shorter but deeper.

Zari didn’t pull away. “The things you make me feel…” her eyes didn’t open, her lips moved against Charlie’s, making her whimper quietly. “It’s not because you look like her. It’s because you are you. The irritating, careless, caring and beautiful person you are”.

She gulped heavily, squeezing her eyes. “Say my name”.

“Charlie”.


End file.
